Paul W. Powell Legacy Library

Walter Shurden tells of an incident someone related to him about a Southern Baptist pastor invited by a pulpit committee to meet with the deacons of the church for a preliminary conversation. After the usual light chitchat they got down to business. One of the deacons, a delightful wholesale grocer, looked at the candidate and said, “Sir, what one question do y...

I was returning from a convention recently and seated next to the late Ramsey Pollard, pastor of the Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis, Tennessee. He said to me, “Paul, after 47 years in the ministry, it is harder to be the pastor of a Baptist church now than any time in my ministry.” The US News & World Report an article entitled “Why Churches...

We have built several buildings at our church. On every construction project there is a superintendent or an overseer. He doesn’t do the work; he sees that it is done. He doesn’t lay bricks. He sees that bricklayers are present when they are needed and they do the work according to specifications. He does the same with electrical wiring, painting, etc. He...

I think it is significant that the Lord likens his kingdom to a vineyard where there is work that needs to be done. He does not compare his kingdom to a place of idleness where men stand around and twiddle their thumbs and wonder why we are and what we are to do. It is rather a place of work, a place of employment, a place where things need to be done and he suggests...

When I talk about working in God’s vineyard I do not mean that you are necessarily employed directly by the church. I mean in your chosen vocation, as a doctor, as a lawyer, as a merchant, as a teacher, wherever you work and whatever you do in that capacity. In that office, in that place, you have a marvelous opportunity to labor in the vineyard of God and to be...

Somebody asked Billy Graham about the many converts who came to his revivals, “Will they last?” He replied, “You might as well go to the hospital in the maternity ward and ask that same question about the newborn babies you see behind the glass.” “Will they last?” The answer is “no” unless somebody loves them, feeds them...

There was a time when I thought that all churches wanted to grow. In fact, I had grown up in a church that was progressive and dynamic. I thought that my church was typical of all churches. Then I went to be the pastor of a church. I was meeting one night with the long-range planning committee, and we were discussing a new building. I said to that committee, “Me...

A lady once wrote to Horace Greeley, the founder of the New York Tribune, to describe the distressing financial straits of her church. She said to him, “We have tried everything that we know to keep our church alive. We have had oyster suppers and grab bags and cakewalks and everything in between. Can you suggest some new idea that can keep our struggling church...

Somebody told me about a bumper sticker they read the other day. It said, “The more people I meet, the more I like my dog.” We are not such a holy righteous bunch, you know. I mean when you get right down to it, when you shuck right down to the cob, there are a lot of us who are far from what we ought to be. We’ve drifted from the straight and narrow...